you people want to know whats wrong with this country---well i'm going to tell you. i'm damn glad they put this picture up there because you crying and moaning people need to see what is realy happing here and all over america,folks this is real life. face it, were are a country of whimps.all you candy as#$'s need to wake up and smell the roses--look at that man look good because if we dont get our shi#$ together and start faceing the truth about what happing to our communty we all are going to be looking like that.so just keep turning a blind eye to whats going on around you saying it wont happen to me ,bull crap sooner or later it dang sure will.grow up you bunch of whinning whimps

You know back in the 70's and 80's when you would arrive in town thru Atlanta St it was a nice area. But over the years it has transformed into Mill St. Thank God they built the bypass around B'ville to Forsyth so people passing thru won't be scared to death.

okay... this is the ignorance on atlanta street.... this is why that bobby guy SHOULD be allowed to rent the homes on that road.... he does not allow even smoking cigs on the front porch.... let alone drinking at all at the houses.... he's trying to BETTER that area by getting people off the street who want to turn their life around. But Arsehats like the city and B. Cherry III have to step in and cause a mess.

Hey Anonymous #17, You have made a potentially slanderous remark about me in your posting. I feel you may need to understand the 'FACTS'.
Fact, I am not managing the property in question. Fact, myself and other professional [email protected] have helped the county/city by rehabbing dozens of homes from worn out foreclosures into respectable homes and continue to do so each day. If you are wander what slander means, wikipedia describes it pretty well; In law, defamation (also called calumny, libel (for written words), slander (for spoken words), and vilification) is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government or nation a negative image. It is usually, but not always,[1] a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).
After serving my country Honorably for 14 years (2 wars & 3 peace keeping missions) I am sad to see you use your inalienable right to free speech in this manner. Not to mention the thousands of men and women serving our country today so you can sit back and make false statements.
So, I am curious Anonymous, what are you doing to help your neighbor in these tough times? I can see plenty of people surounding this setting doing what Christ has taught us. How are you going to continue to do His will?
Signed, Don't need to be anonymous.

The image shown was submitted by the Barnesville Police Department as crime imagery. My apologies to those who found the image a bit much. It was not our intention to be sensationalist or to compete with rag mags at the supermarket.

What the voice of the community allowed us to do was revise the way we use images and who sees them, etc. You probably saw a result of this with our new NSFW (not safe for work) image that will appear in these sort of circumstances from now on.

Just to be clear though this IS what is happening on the street of Barnesville and it is our job as the local organ to accurately, without bias, report the news as it happens.

“Just to be clear though this IS what is happening on the street of Barnesville and it is our job as the local organ to accurately, without bias, report the news as it happens.”

You guys do pretty good on, no bias reporting, but how about a little balance; liberal vs. conservative in the editorial or opinion articles section. In a college town there should be an abundant of counter points to the Geiger Counter.

It doesn't sound like I have to tell you that an editorial is traditionally an article written by the editor from the editor's POV. If he is conservative then likely the editorial will be as much. Vice versa if he is liberal. We do print a number of editorials though that do tend to take a more conservative slant.

In the spirit of representing our community I personally will try to balance out the editorials and allow for more rounded dialogue.

We also always welcome editorials submitted by or written by our readers; regardless of their political slant. We just ask that they not be slanderous or profane.

And Andrew, a truly outstanding newspaper includes a wide variety of opinions, both conservative, liberal and moderate. Many times what is supposed to be strictly a news report is written with a bias slant. Yes, people can write letters to the editor, but those are subject to edit. If this newspaper wants to contribute to making life better for all of the citizens of Lamar County, it needs to spend a little less time sensationalizing and little more time in finding common ground and including all views. Or maybe it just wants to be the National Enquirer of Lamar County".

Not that I doubt what you say or find it invalid, but would you please point out an article you specifically deem sensational?

We won't be all things to all people. I can guarantee that. What I can say is that we aim to be the voice of Lamar County; an accurate representation. Sometimes that voice is going to be at different volumes with different inflection and in different tones.

We try to be sensitive to all our readers and the initial image was a bit jarring. However, that does not mean that readers should not have the option to view it if they desire. I think we found a great compromise and I appreciate your loyalty to our publication.

i agree. this paper is great! i don't even live in Barnesville and I read the site regularly. I wish the papers in Thomaston would get a clue and model themselves after this one.

all you people complaining about the picture are a bunch of cry babies! things like this picture, and much worse, happen on a regular basis. its good to know what is really going on. i appreciate an uncensored media!! if you don't, go watch Fox News Network. HA!

I completely understand your concern 'Zackery Ogletree' and while I agree that kids do read the paper I disagree with your request for us not to print this picture in the paper.

I am assuming that the kids who read the paper do not watch television at all, do not play video games, do not see news programs or even browse the Internet and would therefore be scarred and damaged by such an image.

Perhaps the difference is that this is real life; an occurrence right here in Barnesville. By posting it or publishing it we cannot deny its existence and merely tell our children "it is make believe....just a silly video game." No, we will have to look them in the eye and explain the difference between right and wrong and the consequences that result because of such.

I so agree with you Andrew. Our children need to realize that bad things can and do happen out there in life.My own child, who is grown now, may have been raised too protected, because she is way too trusting of people in her adult life.

Thanks for reporting what is going on. Unfortunately it happened on Atlanta Street. Everyone try to remember the one who committed the act was NOT a resident of Atlanta Street, she came from another street in Barnesville.

Question to the powers that be at the paper: Why can someone get on this medium and bash others and say things that you would not print in the paper as a letter to the editor? Furthermore, why is it required to include your name and contact information to write a letter to the editor but not to make questionable statements on here? I understand the anonymous for just some general comment like "that stabbing shows how mean the world is" or "I think property rights are being trampled on when Pastor Slaughter is being kicked out" But to name an individual about something and not be held accountable is liable on the host of this medium by allowing it. IE: Bill Cherry III was accussed on this medium by an anonymous blogger. If that same person had sent a letter to the editor, they would have to give name and contact info as they should before their comments were printed. Please explain the difference in policy. Thank You.

Although I am not THE power that be I will do my best to explain what is going on.

We do not endorse slander and although some remarks slip through the cracks you would be surprised by the amount of slanderous remarks we delete and never print. We are currently working on the username/password scenario in which people would have to enter a valid email address in order to comment. I think it boils down to two things.

1) Tradition. Most people that submit letters to the editor do so and sign their name. They are usually far more thought out and come with more conviction than Internet comments.

2) Intellectual Property. People can comment anonymously because barnesville.com still falls into that loophole that is Internet anonymity. There is no real legislation that protects people from slander on the web. If it is a threat, they are protected. If it is name calling, they are not.

Trust me though when I say this is a growing concern of ours and I am personally working as hard and as fast as I can to build any security measures to our web service.

Why is that someone is aloud to live in a shed, but a church can't not operate a half-way house. I hope that they fined the owner of this property as much as they fined the owner of the halfway houses.

Thanks Andrew. I do understand. I thought it was important for you to know that several folks I know have discussed how people can say what ever on the blog but get edited out in letters to paper. I am sure you have deleted many ugly,unnecessary comments and we appreciate it. I hope you will continue to weed out those type comments and keep this to subject matter and constructive comments that make good valid view points. I know we will continue to have the cute little jokes about each other and such is life. Keep up the good work and thanks for your explanation.

Man living in a shed Bobby could have helped him if he wasn't shut down by the city of Barnesville.If the city of Barnesville gave Bobby and his residents five days vacate the premises why did they turn the water and electricity off immediatley if his bills were paid they should have stayed on until his five days was up. Watch Out Barnesville this his how lawsuits happen.